Humans have always been creatively inspired by the night sky, as common names for constellations and the associated myths and legends demonstrate. Tonight, Dave Wilkinson, one of our newest contributors, took the time to share with us some of his own stellar creativity in the form of recent work in astrophotography.

Dave first got into this in 2012 after an hiatus from sports photography, having been inspired by an e-book titled Seeing the Unseen about photographing landscapes at night. As he had been interested in astronomy as a child, it was a natural progression for him to combine these interests.

Saturn

He started simply by experimenting with his camera and tripod to see what he could achieve. He began capturing star trails (made by using long exposures to photograph the perceived movement of the stars across the sky as the earth rotates) and then the moon. It wasn’t until his first successes capturing the rings of Saturn however, that he really got hooked!

North American Nebula

When progressing further to start to imaging the Milky Way during a trip to the Southern Hemisphere, he started using ‘frame stacking’ techniques, by which multiple photographs are layered in special software to produce a final and much clearer image. Producing these stacked photographs is a lengthy process and one image he showed us was compiled from no less than forty 30 second exposures. As the kit requires time to cool down between each of these exposures (minor temperature fluctuations caused by the electrical components of the camera equipment can cause tiny but critical expansions in the hardware that distort the photograph), some images will take in excess of an hour to capture. This time scale seemed fairly trivial however, when Dave explained that the objects he is photographing are over 21 million light years away, which means that the photons hitting the sensors in the camera have taken 21 million years to get to Earth! This is a fact that fascinates Dave and has clearly influenced his enthusiasm for the subject!

Spurred on by some very successful images using minimal kit, it wasn’t long before he was investing more cash in these projects and soon began using the camera body on telescopes to experiment with magnification. He also started using a tracking system (this moves the camera at the same rate as the apparent movement of the sky as the earth rotates, allowing sharp images of individual objects and eliminating the ‘default’ star trails). In addition to this, Dave was now utilising video, from which he could then select individual frames at their sharpest to create even more refined stacked photographs. Use of video in this way makes it possible to negate the effect of atmospheric distortion and achieve the highest possible detail from the captured footage. He has since progressed to imaging sun spots and flares (Health and Safety note; do not attempt this without a filter!) as well as some impressive detail on photographs of the Moon and planets.

The Sun

When talking about his work, Dave makes it clear that he is very competent in using some quite advanced equipment and techniques despite his ‘amateur’ status, however his passion drives him to emphasise that anyone can get out and having a go with very minimal kit. He took pains to explain that using just a standard camera and tripod (or even just balancing the camera on a steady surface) can yield surprising results and reveal more of the sky than is possible to see with the naked eye. He also explained that these images can even have value on a professional scale as casual observers are increasingly discovering events such as supernovae more often than scientists due to more combined man hours and observing times, as well as less budgetary pressures one imagines!

One thing I particularly enjoyed about Dave’s talk was his conclusion that expressly referenced how talking about his work to other ‘CRITters’ had helped shape, inform and inspire his recent outcomes. Having discussed that much of his work was a little scattered and amorphous, his CRITgroup visit inspired Dave to devise some specific projects, these being planetary imaging, especially Jupiter due to good viewing conditions, and photographs taken using the telescope at The Godlee Observatory (the home of Manchester Astronomical society). It was exciting to see his most recent photographs taken from the Godlee at the end of April, in which he had captured details in the rings of Saturn and the polar icecaps on Mars!

A refreshing change from the standard arty fare that CRITgroup enjoys exploring, this work reminded me of the Renaissance roots of many modern artforms, where the arts and sciences were very much less distinct areas. These boundaries are being increasingly challenged in a variety of ways but Dave’s work seemed a very simple and honest way of revisiting the relationship between the disciplines and reminded me that the arts and sciences are really just two languages communicating our drive to explore, understand and recording the world (or universe!) around us. I hope the inspiration Dave has found at CRITgroup continues to fuel many more exciting images and look forward to seeing them in the near future (though I hope that will be on a global, not universal scale and they don’t take 21 million years to appear)!

Next month we will meet on May 28th to welcome artist Peter S. Smith who will share his paintings and prints, as well as some new work on the iPad.

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CRITgroup

_Creative Reflection and Investigation Talk Group is an
informal network for local artists and designers. The group meets every other month aiming to facilitate a pooling of
professional skills and knowledge to provide motivation, support and
social contact for those pursuing a creative (visual) practice in
Manchester.